Scalloway parent council makes formal complaint about AHS newsletter

The Scalloway Parent Council has formally complained about the schools service’s decision to send families of children at the school a copy of the latest Anderson High newsletter.

Vice-chairwoman Karen Eunson said members of the organisation had been outraged to discover that the mailshot had cost £1,000.

The schools service said last week that the newsletter had been delivered in an attempt to counter errors about the AHS during the consultation process over the planned closure of Scalloway Junior High’s secondary department. That came to an end at midnight.

“To spend this sum of money at a time when communities are being faced with school closures is quite shocking,” she said.

“The Save Scalloway School campaign, led by the parent council, has not made any negative comments about the teachers or pupils of the AHS. What we have done is draw attention to the poor condition of the current buildings and we have based these comments principally on the evidence in the local authority’s own proposal paper on relocation of the AHS.

“It is not in the interest of pupils at either Scalloway or the Anderson High to add an extra 116 pupils to the roll of a school which has such significant maintenance problems, and such limited dining and social facilities, that it is already scheduled for replacement.”